After suffering its second consecutive losing season last winter, the Sobrato girls soccer team will turn to a mix of youth – eight freshmen make up the roster – and experience as it attempts to climb up the Blossom Valley Athletic League Mount Hamilton Division standings this year.
The Bulldogs will need to do that without three-time all-league keeper Maggie Cropp, who graduated last spring. But with an influx of youthful talent, that shouldn’t be too hard for the Bulldogs.
“I see a lot of success with this team this year,” coach Paul Nishimatsu said. “We are really young … but I would say they are all high-end type of players. And the returning group, we only lost one starter from last year.”
Replacing Cropp will be a team effort, Nishimatsu said. With captains Kate van Kuelen and Shawna Lai on the defensive end, the Bulldogs should be strong in front of freshman goalie Hazel Sanz.
“As far as the confidence goes, we really have it on defense,” Nishimatsu said. “Our defensive players were are all starters last year and without our keeper from last year, that’s important. But we need to defend with eight instead of relying on an amazing goalkeeper.”
After a 3-0 win over Oak Grove in the season opener, things look good for the Bulldogs with the mix of old and new.
“I have really high expectations,” van Kuelen said. “I’m really excited. We have a really young team, so I’m expecting a lot of young energy. I’m just excited to see how the team develops from here. We have a real good balance because the returning players can help the young players adjust to the high school game. We have a lot of young energy and skills coming in but we get to keep our same team and same setup.”
All but one starter returns from last year’s team, which ended the season in seventh place with a 5-11-4 record. But with another year under their belt, last year’s losing season seems like a long time ago.
“The experience level is really high even though we are mostly freshmen,” Nishimatsu said. “There are some things we need to work on but the surprising thing is how easy we are able to create our scoring abilities. It’s going to be a great year.”
And a lot of that offense is going to come from freshman Kayla King, who scored twice in the season opener. With her speed and ball handling ability, Nishimatsu expects a lot from her.
“We have offense this year, much more than we did last year,” he said.
King, who has experience playing at the club level, is ready for her opportunities, she said.
“I’m just going to try my best and help the team out as much as I can,” King said. “Our major goal is to go to CCS. So I’ll just try to help them out as much as I can and putting my best foot forward every game until the last whistle. It’s always everything you’ve got.”
She continued: “I have very high expectations just with all the variety of skill that we have. We should be able to come together. We have the skill and the intensity.”
King and her freshmen teammates bring another dimension to the Bulldogs, van Kuelen said.
“One thing that we have this year that we haven’t had before is more offensive players coming in, which is really nice,” she said. “We have a set defense, but this year we have forwards coming in and a new goalie. They help balance out the team we already had. I’m really excited for the season to start.”
